Sun, Jan 25, 2004

As the New Hampshire Primary looms, and her husband?s campaign continues to slip, ordinary Americans are quietly hoping she will pick up the torch and enter the fray. If a Democrat ends up being the next president of the United States, please let it be Judy Dean.

No sooner than the media were heaping praise on Senator John Edwards for the positive tone of his campaign, an Edwards campaign document surfaced revealing specific plans to attack other candidates. So is Edwards committed to positive campaigning, or not?

Reem al-Riyashi was a normal-looking 22-year-old Palestinian woman. On Jan. 14, she strapped several pounds of explosives and nails to her body and approached an Israeli security checkpoint in the Gaza Strip.

Before the Iowa voters sent him back to the showers in Missouri, the statement people remember most from Dick Gephardt was his repeated and revolting accusation that President George W. Bush is a "miserable failure."

One of the more remarkable results of last Monday's Iowa caucuses was the utter collapse of Congressman Dick Gephardt, who won the caucuses in 1988. The political clout of organized labor also took a hit. There may be larger political implications from this result.

When I heard the other day that two students at Calvin Coolidge High in Washington, my alma mater, had been threatened with a trip to the principal's office if they didn't behave themselves, I was perplexed. What was left to offend?

Kerry has long said that he is a great fighter. If he completes his miraculous comeback to win the Democratic nomination, he will indeed have the fight of his life on his hands -- against his own legislative record.

The week has provided sharp contrasts in the points of view offered by the nation's two principal parties. On Monday, the Democratic caucuses in Iowa; on Tuesday, the president's State of the Union address.

Wed, Jan 21, 2004

The headline story out of the Iowa caucuses is Senator John Kerry's surprising victory and the collapse of Governor Howard Dean's political bubble. This is all very well for those in the media who treat politics as the personal stories of politicians.

Gwyneth Paltrow, the fashionable blond actress who once chopped off her hair to look exactly like ex-boyfriend Brad Pitt and who showed up at the Oscars a few years ago in a transparent Goth-meets-Heidi costume, has some nerve calling anybody ?weird.?

What needs to be done to improve black education? Whether it's civil rights organizations, politicians or the education establishment, you'll get answers that cover the gamut from more money for teachers and smaller class sizes to school desegregation and racial preferences in higher education.

Don't look now, but a barrel of common sense seems to have rolled through the front door of the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC is finally upset over the issue of filthy cursing on broadcast television.

In his best-selling book, "A National Party No More -- The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat," Miller dedicates a chapter(entitled "Abortion and a God Above") to describing his conversion from a pro-choice Democrat who supported Roe v. Wade, to a pro-life Democrat who doesn't.

Although President Bush devoted much time to foreign policy in his State of the Union address, there is one issue he did not tackle in detail that could yet cause him political harm before November: Islamists? increasing power inside Iraq.

In the midst of a civil upheaval that threatened to erode the very structure that keeps us huddled together as a society, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of love and the need to overcome oppression without resorting to oppression.

Tue, Jan 20, 2004

Back in the 1960s, there was a revolution on our nation?s college campuses. Liberal students were organizing protests outside buildings, and even sit-ins inside the offices of deans and college presidents.

Isn't it ironic that as the Republican primaries were gearing up four years ago, Democrats and the media began their refrain that George W. Bush was not presidential material because he lacked "gravitas"?

Reacting to President George Bush's recess appointment of Charles W. Pickering Sr. to a federal appeals court seat, Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) called it a "travesty" that dishonors the civil rights movement.

Since I am in the unenviable position of writing this column before the results of the Iowa caucuses are in and before the president's State of the Union address, I've decided to turn my focus to the South, where political pundits will soon be turning their attention.

Having failed miserably in its effort to shore-up U.S. manufacturing with trade protection, it now appears that the Bush administration is preparing to use direct government subsidies instead. Like the ill-fated steel tariffs, this effort, too, is doomed to failure.

Mon, Jan 19, 2004

We must wish Al Franken well. Heaven knows the left needs all the help it can get in its search for a place on the radio dial, but Al is going unarmed into a battle of wits and humor against Rush Limbaugh.

If Iowa were kicking off the Democratic presidential selection with a regular primary election instead of Monday night's caucuses, the fabulous campaign of Howard Dean would suffer a possibly mortal wound.

He charged that the Iraq War was driven by domestic political considerations, as White House operative Karl Rove and other administration officials dragged the country to war to improve the president's political standing.